We spent the night about an hour’s walk from the broken statue; I had spent the entire day practising and most of the evening either fighting or running around and I was looking forward to getting some sleep. Reff still insisted on us keeping watches, which seemed a sensible enough precaution, though he insisted that our ‘guest’ be allowed to sleep through the night. It is sometimes tough to tell with the big risi, but I still did not think he entirely trusted the walking distillery we had picked up, despite Flame Ever Dancing’s sort-of-endorsement. I had some minor reservations of my own, as I had at least skirted the truth without being called out, and if it was possible to block their senses, perhaps it was possible to lie to them? Either way, I would feel better once we reached the Alchemy Associations guards at the farm, so we could confirm his story once and for all. If push came to shove, I liked to think that the four of us would be able to take him. Provided he did not have backup. And we could hold our breath...

The night passed without incident, though at one point I had seen what seemed to be the glowing outline of massive cat, but it had passed us by without bothering us. My mind no-longer preoccupied by my imminent quest, the glowing form did remind me that I needed to buy some more clothes once we reached civilisation again, so I would need to do some hunting while we were here, though it still made me a touch uncomfortable to kill a thing just for money. I knew that I would have to do my best to dress it and try my hand at cooking it if I was going be able to rationalize it to myself; maybe I would get lucky and some lucrative beasts would attack us... it is weird what you can end up wishing for.

“Oi, Sparky, would ye care to spar a tad afore we set off? Yer own fate tweakery has me as curious as a cat with amnesia.”

“Just me? I don’t think I’d provide much of a challenge on my own, Cad.”

I was not entirely sure that was the case, honestly; my time compression seemed to bypass the standard rules for speed, and on top of my other abilities, I thought I might be able to put up far more of a fight than a Path stage had any right to. But, having said that, it was never a good idea to act cocky when you stand a good chance of losing; bravado has its place, but as I had re-learned since my arrival, it is not always appropriate.

“I promise to take it easy on ye. I need to understand, Sparky. It's like having something ticklin’ me that I can’t see.”

I looked over at my other companions; Reff and Riffa were deep in conversation, but the short-haired apprentice gave me a shrug. Turning back to Cad, I offered a shrug of my own.

“I would, Cad, but my Praxis is still pretty low from touching that Drain Fog stuff. Maybe once I’m recovered?

“That’s fair enough, Sparky. My bad, I should’a’ remembered.”

I waved him off and closed my eyes, meditating and internalising the Experiences from the day prior, smiling as I felt the thrum of my Core calming fractionally, moment by moment. I was sort of used to the liquid joy of cultivation by that point, or at least I was not surprised by it, but even so, it was a hell of a way to kick off your day.

The sun was well above the horizon by the time I was nudged out of my blissful meditation by Darina, her expression impatient. Chuckling under the lingering effects of my cultivation, I stood and stretched, continuing to cultivate, though not quite as efficiently; my Core seemed about a fifth full, though I could only judge such things roughly.

With my remaining hand, I gestured for the diminutive apprentice to lead the way, but she only rolled her eyes and gestured for Cad to lead in her stead.

“Well, then, follow me I guess; don’t follow to close behind, lass, ye shouldn’t sprint through a jungle smashed off yer face.”

Smiling through his almost-neat beard, the hammer-wielder turned to face North and I noticed Darina move directly behind him with a scowl; it seemed she had taken the mercenary’s words as a challenge. It could only possibly end well, right?

With a laugh, Cad was off and I split my concentration between cultivation and gripping the ground and not tripping, my mind briefly wandering to the fact that as soon as I reached a point where I would not slow my group down, we found somebody else who’d make us run faster.

*

***

*

It was sometime in the mid-afternoon when we reached the farms; it was easy to tell when we arrived as the trees went from being a wild, chaotic mass of vegetation to neat, ordered rows of trees and flowering plants that stretched as far as the eye could see.

“Halt! What’s your business her- Cad?”

The guard stepped out from behind a particularly wide tree wearing some kind of strange green, scale-mail-robe-looking garment.

“Henny! How’ve ye been without me, bad? I bet this place has been as dour as a rainy day at an open-air wedding, without me!”

“I’ve told you before, Cad, my name is Henalya, not, Henny"

“Bah, everyone calls ye Henny. Now, enough about how much ye’ve missed me fine company; this here is a delegation from the Council of Apexes, or some such, and they’re here t’vouch for me!”

Henny – Henalya – looked at us sceptically and I offered her a short, awkward wave.

“Really? These children are delegates from the Council of Apexes?”

“On me word!”

“The Council of Apexes that doesn’t exist?”

“Of course it exists, Henny; how else could these fine folks be delegates of it?”

Ignoring Cad’s question, the guard turned to us, rubbing at her head with one hand, her expression put-upon.

“Okay, who are you and how did this idiot rope you into this?”

“We’re not children, Henny. I am Darina the Ever Flowing, Apprentice to Sonja Falling Ash, Apex of the Mending Flesh. And this idiot did not rope us into anything!”

The short-tempered apprentice clearly had not taken well to being called a child, and rarely reacted well to anybody questioning her status, but her angry words were still a bit of a surprise; I guessed I had become used to her nicer side.

“Oi, there’s no need to be callin’ me, an idiot, lady and lass-”

“My name is Henalya, child!"

I stepped forward to interrupt them before anybody had chance to aggravate each other any further, my most ingratiating smile plastered across my face.

“Uh, Henalya, while I’m pretty sure they’re not called the Council of Apexes, we were actually sent to the region by a number of Apexes. My name is Hunter, and I’m sort of the apprentice of Walker, Apex of the Infinite Blades. Those two, Reff and Riffa, are brother and sister to the Apex of The Mountain’s Seed. And Darina already introduced herself. We were sent to, uh, assist the phoenix Elder with something, which Cad did help with.”

The guard eye-balled me for a moment, wavering between ignoring me to continue her burgeoning argument and addressing my – admittedly far-fetched – story. After maybe a second and a half, she turned fully towards me, her face blanking and becoming all business.

“You were sent to assist an Elder; you are all also somewhat related to Apexes? It doesn’t sound true, but it all might be too stupid to be fake. Either way, if you’re vouching for this... Cad... we’ll need to verify what you have to say. One moment while I call for somebody to cover my post.”

The guard blew a series of short whistles and a moment later another person wearing the same strange metal robe hurried over.

“Bassh, I’m taking this group to see the Commander. Watch my post?”

“Sure thing, Henny. Good to see you back, Cad! Part-, uh polite gathering later?”

“Bassh, ye damned ‘n’ blasted fool! Aye, what ye said – provided I’m at me liberty, that is.”

I noted that Bassh also used Henny, and that it irritated her far less than when Cad used it; as we walked away, following Henalya, I wondered why that was.

“You’ve only been back for a few minutes and you’re already trying to get yourself in trouble, Cad? Really, you can’t just behave like an adult for a few minutes?”

“Bah, where be the fun in that, Henny? Grab life by the balls and suck it in!”

Given the female guard’s comment about behaving like an adult, I fought not to laugh but it was pretty difficult given Darina’s own snort.

*

***

*

Henny led us through the perfect lines of trees to an area that had been cleared of greenery, which had then been replaced by a stone structure behind high walls. Green pennants bearing a multi-hued flame hung on either side the of the building’s wide doors; the flame reminded me of the stuff Won Ben Ro had used to inspect and attempt treatment of Aella, back in Everwood City. My overall knowledge of alchemy was severely limited, and it bore practically no similarity to what I had been familiar with back on Earth, which is to say, nobody had yet attempted to convert lead into gold in my presence.

Given the general scale of the world I found myself on, it was refreshing to see a reasonably sized building; the Blacksand Citadel had been impressive, certainly, but it was a touch overwhelming. The tallest building on Earth when I... left... had only been a couple of thousand feet, but the Citadel had been almost space elevator-like in scale. I was more of a smaller scale kind of person, though that might change if I ended up living for thousands of years around all of the massive things of my new home.

Our guide lead us into the structure and through a number of narrow corridors; for the first time, I saw Reff actually having to duck slightly as he passed through doors. I wondered how his much taller brother would handle it, but the image of Raaf simply making the door bigger popped into my head, and I had to grin at the thought of the whole place simply growing a few feet in every direction to accommodate him.

We came to a stop outside of a closed door bound with bands of violet metal that I could only really see from the corner of my eye; it was actually starting to give me a headache as we approached and my eyes skipped about and tried to focus on them. Thankfully, Henny drew my attention by speaking.

“Commander Jayford is through this door, he’s in charge of the military branch of the Alchemy Association here at the Farm. Be respectful, and you’ll be fine. Cad.”

“What do ye mean, ‘Cad’? The picture o’respect, I am.”

Ignoring Cad’s wide-eyed shock – or at least the appearance of it – the guard knocked twice on the wood of the door. A moment passed before I heard a muffled, “Enter.” from the other side.

Pushing the door open, Henny stepped through and snapped her right fist to her left shoulder in what I assumed was some kind of salute.

“Commander Jayford, Specialist Caddin Thatch has returned from his relay mission, sir!”

“Thank you, Corporal. I see he brought some guests with him; send them in.”

We shuffled through the door, the apparent Corporal giving Cad a severe look.

On the other side of the room sat a man who looked to be in his early forties, with black hair gone to grey at the temples and a carefully manicured salt and pepper goatee. He was dressed in some sort of quilted tunic with metal studs; a memory tickled at the back of my mind making me think it was called a brig-something. I was, unfortunately, unable to chase down the thought as the man spoke, his voice snapping like a whip.

“Specialist Thatch, you have exceeded the time allotted for the message relay by an entire day; do you have an explanation?”

“Well, ye see, sir, I was comin’ back, right on schedule when these two bas-uh-people attacked me right out o’the blue. Now, bein’ the level headed, responsible man I am, I took the situation in and responded with appropriate force, right as these fine folks popped out of the trees. Now, at first, I thinks to me self, ‘it’s a Void Blasted ambush!’, but as it happens the folks who attacked me were part of a larger group tryin’ t’steal the egg of a local Elder, and this lot we’re seein’ their way t’helpin’ stop it.”

Jayford looked over at us, his face expressionless, but he did not say a word and after a moment, Cad continued.

“They’re all related to a bunch of Apexes ye see, sir. They were on a mission, and I ended up helping them, which is why I’m late.”

“Specialist Thatch has a tendency to both embellish and to overestimate his abilities when it comes to covering up his more... raucous... tendencies. But I have never heard him lie outright. As it seems that you four are his alibi – and perhaps prestigious guests if what he says is correct – would one among you be willing to partake in some... fact finding?”

The Commander’s voice was smooth and authoritative, and while he had phrased the last as a question, his tone did not quite convey the same level of choice.

“What would this, ‘fact finding’ involve?”

Since it was ultimately my quest that had brought us to the area, I was not willing to ask any of my friends to do whatever was coming, but still, I was finding that I was better to be cautious than to simply bull ahead.

“Nothing damaging or dangerous, I assure you...”

“Sorry; I’m Hunter, this is Reff, Riffa and Darina.”

“I assure you, Hunter, it would be easy, hardly an inconvenience. You would simply need to imbibe a concoction produced here on the Farm which would preclude you from speaking falsehoods.”

“A truth serum? What the hell, why did I get tortured for info if there’s a damn truth serum out there?”

“An apt name, Hunter. Why you were tortured, I cannot say, though I am certainly not happy about it. I do hope it wasn’t by us?”

“What? No, no, it was the guys Cad helped us take care of. Well, actually, it was the one that got away, but it was the same group.”

“I see. So, are you willing?”

“Sure. But... I have some ground rules.”